Cristiano Ronaldo made headlines for his speech during the collection of the ‘Quinas de Ouro’ award in which he hinted that his retirement is near and that it may come before the 1,000 goals, but today it was not him who spoke, but one of his former coaches. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed the Portuguese for a few months at Manchester United, until the Norwegian was replaced.
The Portuguese striker arrived in England from Juventus in what seemed like an ideal reunion, both in terms of price (€17 million) and sporting performance (he had just scored 36 goals for Juventus). However, the talent-churning machine that the Red Devils have become ended the fairy tale just a season and a half later. Solskjaer admitted to Norwegian media outlet NRK that it may not have been the right move: “It was probably the wrong decision for all of us, but we felt at the time that it was the right decision,” he said.
A few months ago, Ole also commented on the change that the arrival of the striker to the team in an interview with Gary Neville: “With him we had no problem with the ball, but we had to change the different roles that we had become accustomed to in the press. We were one of the teams that pressed the most before he arrived”.
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If I had signed for City I would have scored more goals than Haaland
“I think it affected the dynamics. Maybe many other players felt less important because, logically, a world superstar had arrived,” the Norwegian coach also spoke of an impact in the dressing room.
On the verge of leaving for City
Ronaldo was under Solskjaer’s orders for 12 games, in which he scored nine goals and provided two assists. Everything went wrong with the arrival of Erik Ten Hag, but Ronaldo was about to land on the other side of Manchester before all this happened. “He is one of the best players in the world in the last 15 years. If he had signed for City he would have scored more goals than Haaland,” said Solskjaer a few months ago.
Erling is now captaining Norway following Martin Odegaard’s injury, but with little success, as his country fell 5-1 to Austria in their first match with the armband. Even so, Ole sees him ready: “He has the personality for it.”
As for his future, the coach sees himself ready for a national team and, although he was not contacted by England with the dismissal of Southgate, he believes that he may have a future in international football.
